DSM Nutritional Products and E.ON have announced their intention to essentially modernize the existing distributed power plant at Grenzach-Wyhlen in Baden-Württemberg.
The fuel-efficient combined heat and power plant from E.ON has been producing process steam and electricity to manufacture vitamins and carotenoids for more than 13 years. However, the energy demand at the production site has recently changed and the facility is also nearing the end of its lifetime.
As energy partner to DSM Nutritional Products, E.ON developed a modernization concept tailored to the site’s long-term needs that will allow further sustainable operation of the combined heat and power plant. The core of the upgraded facility is a new gas turbine with 22 megawatts (MW) of electrical capacity. The heat recovery steam generator will be fully overhauled to allow a highly efficient steam generation by using waste heat from the gas turbine exhaust. Before DSM can use the steam for manufacturing, it flows through a new and more efficient steam turbine that can generate up to 8 MW of electricity during peak hours.
According to Sjef Arets, chairman of the supervisory board at DSM Nutritional Products GmbH in Grenzach-Wyhlen, “The upgraded facility will supply energy to DSM Nutritional Products for 15 years. This long-term agreement also sends a positive signal to the future of the production site located in the region on the borders between Germany, Switzerland and France. The reduction of energy costs by an efficient energy generation is a vital contribution for site’s future viability in a competitive environment.”
“For companies in the chemical industry a secure energy supply is of high importance. We feel honored that DSM Nutritional
Products is extending our partnership and awarding us a new project. We are also proud of our bespoke solutions contributing to the future security of the site,” says Bernd Schumacher, CEO of E.ON Connecting Energies.
About E.ON Connecting Energies
E.ON is an international investor owned energy services provider focusing exclusively on power grids, customer solutions and renewable energy. In fiscal 2015, the company’s more than 40,000 employees generated some 38 billion euros in revenue. E.ON supplies gas and electricity to roughly 33 million customers. Subsidiary, E.ON Connecting Energies, specializes in providing integrated energy solutions for customers in manufacturing, business and government. The company offers tailor-made solutions for energy efficiency, decentralized generation, virtual power plants, flexibility and battery storage. As an energy services provider, E.ON Connecting Energies achieves cost savings throughout a system’s life cycle as well as lasting reductions in energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
About DSM – Bright Science. Brighter Living.™
Royal DSM is a global enterprise active in the health, nutrition and materials sectors. By combining its unique expertise in life and materials sciences, DSM fosters economic prosperity along with ecological and social progress, thus creating sustainable value for all our stakeholders. DSM develops innovative solutions that nourish, protect and that improve performance. The company supplies global markets, including those in food and food supplements, personal care, animal feed, medical products, the automotive industry, paints and varnishes, electrical engineering and electronics, animal and plant life, alternative energy as well as biologically based materials. DSM together with its affiliated companies has around 25,000 employees and generates annual net revenue of roughly 10 billion euros. The company is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam. More information is available on the company’s website.
